To Jeff Fritz,
If I don’t find a speaker soon I’m going to need a few doctors and a divorce lawyer! My room is 17’ x 10’. I have tried Wilson Audio Sophia 3s -- they were very nice but too harsh on top. I have tried Sonus Faber Olympica IIIs. Again, very nice, but lacked midrange. And I have recently had a home demo of some TAD Evolution Ones, which sounded quite overpowering and, again, a bit subdued in the midrange.
I would love a speaker that’s got authoritative bass, a great midrange, and a smooth top end. There are currently some EgglestonWorks Andra III SEs available. There are some Rockport Miras available, and some EgglestonWorks Kivas or Nines. I like the Audiovector R 3, but I think that a pair of them would lack the weight and authority I’m looking for.
There are other options available, but they all seem to have ceramic or metal drivers, which scare me.
Thanks for your time.
Kind regards,
Matthew S Williams
United Kingdom
Having both the Sonus Faber and TAD speakers in your system, and finding both lacking in midrange, raises some flags. As such, I would advise you to first examine your room acoustics. Those speakers are fairly neutral designs and there is no inherent flaw in them that would result in a lack of midrange. This might indicate an acoustics problem that should be addressed before you audition more speakers. Perhaps there is a dealer that could help with that, or a room acoustics company online that could assist based on your room’s dimensions and layout.
As for speakers that might work for you, of the ones you name, the natural choice would be the Rockports. In fact, the attributes you desire -- “authoritative bass, a great midrange, and a smooth top end” -- are some of the same terms I would use to describe the Rockport house sound. I would advise you to consider a pair of Rockport Atria IIs. That model incorporates Rockport’s latest thinking on loudspeaker design, including the waveguide-loaded tweeter. Based on your criteria for a speaker, I could not recommend them strongly enough. For your reference, I reviewed both the Mira and original Atria. . . . Jeff Fritz
